https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20137901001
Thermodynamics and energy conversion of near-field thermal radiation: Maximum work and efficiency bounds
Departament de Física Fonamental, Facultat de Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
a Corresponding author: mrubi@ub.edu
Published online: 10 December 2014
We analyse the process of conversion of near-field thermal radiation into usable work by considering the radiation emitted between two planar sources supporting surface phonon-polaritons. The maximum work flux that can be extracted from the radiation is obtained taking into account that the spectral flux of modes is mainly dominated by these surface modes. The thermodynamic efficiencies are discussed and an upper bound for the first law efficiency is obtained for this process.
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2014
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